Studie van een naakte vrouw 1846 - 1904

This is a pencil drawing by Henri Fantin-Latour, titled "Study of a Nude Woman," and it resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Fantin-Latour made this study sometime in the mid to late nineteenth century, when the academic nude was a staple of artistic training and a celebrated genre in the official Salons. But we must ask, what does it mean to study the nude? For the artist, it’s an exercise in form, shadow, and light. For the academy, it was a way to train artists in the classical tradition, reinforcing ideas about beauty and the body that were rooted in ancient Greece. But this drawing, with its delicate lines and intimate pose, also hints at something more personal. Fantin-Latour was part of a generation of artists who began to question the rigid rules of the academy, seeking a more truthful and individual expression. As art historians, we can look to the archives, to letters and exhibition reviews, to understand how this drawing fits into the broader context of 19th-century French art and society. The meaning of art is always shaped by the institutions and social forces that surround it.